


Tilt

by Ko_dama



Category: V for Vendetta (2005)
Genre: F/M, No Smut, One Shot, Original Character(s), Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-06
Updated: 2019-10-06
Packaged: 2020-11-25 22:34:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,336
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20919719
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ko_dama/pseuds/Ko_dama
Summary: In the dark a decision is made and an idea is born. V was born at Lark Hill but never recalled his life before. What would it take to turn a man into a monster?





	Tilt

**Author's Note:**

> This came to me in a dream many years ago when I was pondering what V's life may have been like before Evey. Would he have had a family, job and friends? I hope you enjoy.

The body on the floor was still. Any evidence of breath was long gone, no rise or fall of the chest was visible. It had been that way for some time now. The odd small bug roamed over the skeletal form periodically but that was the only movement within these walls of stone. Yet there was still a spark of life inside this form. Buried deep down away from light in the depths of darkness. A darkness only ever visited by the departed.

Here in this pitch of deep black away from the sensation of whip lash and hunger there was a tiny spark of life that hovered over the edge of the abyss. It tilted over so slightly and then back again. Back and forward, back and forward. Soon it would tilt a little too much one way and a decision would be made. Woe that it tilt the wrong way.

Within this spark of simple dim light a soul was making its choice. It was examining its options and deciding what it should do. Such a decision that was to be made.

The joy of laughter filled the room as the students clapped with approval, “More sir. Show us some more” a joyous voice shouted. “Say another one sire, please sir just one more”.

“Ok, ok lads one more before the bell” he laughed. “A moment if you please young gentlemen that I may prepare”. Moving over to the theatre cupboard he paused and rummaged through the items hanging there. Masks, hats, swords, and skulls, all manner of thing to engage and capture the hearts and minds of young learners. Selecting the two most appropriate items he moved to the front of the class once more. With a flourish of hand he ballooned a silken burgundy cape about his shoulders and then twirled to flick up a prop sword and turned to face the class once “Now here” he cried “We see yet again a wonderful example from the literary master himself. Now who do you think I speak of lads?”. A clamor of movement as hands shot into the air. “Yes Edward, who do you think?”.

“Is it Thomas Wyatt, sir?”

“No, you're thinking Elizabethan writers there. What about you Robert?”

“Lord Byron sir!”

“Good grief lad you're way ahead on that one Byron is of the Romanticism School. Come now lads, think. Yes Joseph your answer”.

“Shakespeare sir”

“Thank you lad, it is indeed Sir William Shakespeare himself. Now if you please I present you with a classic alliteration from A Midsummer’s Night Dream”. Turning sideward’s he moved his form and raised his sword and stabbed it through the air.

“Whereat, with blade, with bloody blameful blade,  
He bravely broach'd is boiling bloody breast;  
And this by, tarrying in mulberry shade,  
His dagger drew, and died. For all the rest,  
Let lion, moonshine, wall, and lovers twain  
At large discourse, while here they do remain”

He moved across the room and duelled with invisible foe. His tall body waved the sword above the heads of the youths seated before him, captivating their eyes and minds. Once done he turned before them and lowered his weapon. A slight pause and then the class before him whooped and cheered with glee. “So now if you please lads who can pin point the Masters use of alliteration, the fine literacy art of repetition of initial consonant sounds in two or more neighbouring words or syllables? Yes Mr Wilson your answer”

The soul paused for a moment, it’s tilting this way and that stopped as an echo of something passed through it. The sound of young voices filled with questions and thoughts about life, the how’s and the why’s of things. These were things that were important to the soul, things that had given it meaning when light filled what was now this dark dank place, this non existence.

But slowly this meaning faded away and the soul once again tilted one way and then the other. Life, death, life, death, life, death and on it went yet a little slower then before.

“Please reconsider, just think it through before you do this” she pleaded with him. Her voice filled with a tone that implored him to see reason.

“My dearest Heart, I have thought it through and my resolve if firm”. He moved across the room and took his love into his arms. His arms found their own way around her body and he drew her in to his side. His hand moved to her hair, her beautiful golden hair that seemed to capture the rays of the sun within each strand. He breathed in her scent, that of summer flowers in full bloom. How his own heart skipped a beat when he held her thus. It was as though everything was right in the world when they stood so.

“Then you leave me no choice” she whispered as she turned her head up to look at him. “I shall simply have to come with you” she smiled as his face reflected his shock.

“You are sure, you would do that? For me” he questioned.

“For you I would walk to the ends of the earth, you know that” she spoke with truth. She moved her hand up to cup his face. “You are the kind of man who is only born so often. You appear when those around you need strength and resolve, when hope is all but lost, it is men like you who hold us all together and remind us of what is most precious. And because I know this I know why you must go down to London. Something is starting to go very wrong in our world, this war has gone on for so long…….” Her voice trailed away as she became lost in memories.

He held her close knowing of what she spoke. How long had it been since his brother had left for war, never to return. Only a month since his uncle had failed to return from his job at The Times. Things were indeed starting to go very wrong and this symposium was a chance to discuss things and find resolutions in these darkening times.

“Then we go together, Heart, we go together” he whispered down at her before he moved his lips over hers. He pulled her in close and felt his heart trip as she moved her own arms about him. How lucky he was to have found a love like this, how lucky he was.

The soul slowed and stopped again as another meaning passed through. Another glimmer of something strong and true, something that had bound the soul to another so deeply they would always exist together on some plane, in some space……..but slowly it faded away and once more began the tilt. Life, death, life, death, life, death.

He looked down at the scene below the hotel window. Crowds had gathered around the building in the early afternoon once word of the shooting had spread. People were shouting, screaming, crying. Pain and anguish welled up from the mass of people. Somehow he couldn’t help feeling that things were beyond the point where control could be taken through reason and discussion. Ever since the symposium so long ago now.

How did one end up here he thought. One day his life had been full and simple. His students, his Heart and his hobbies had been enough. Yet here he was one of many voices and minds trying to make sense and understanding of things that were not sensible or understandable.

The door opened to the room and he quickly turned, his Heart had returned? “Quick we have to get out of here, now” spoke his Friend. “The hotel is surrounded, they detained the others as they were leaving Parliament. They didn’t even give any warning. They just came in and cuffed them and then the separated them and then…”.

“Then, then what??”

“They shot them, the army just shot them down. Right there in front of everyone. The women were at the back of the group…they screamed” a sob broke his Friends voice.

His heart had begun to race “Where is she?” he whispered knowing what was to come. “Where is she?” he roared. His friend looked down at his clothing covered in sweat and numerous deep maroon splotches.

“She was with them……….I saw, I I I saw her go down. It was so quick. They were screaming and......” Friends voice broke again.

He moved with lighting speed and slammed his Friend against the wall. “NO, NO! You're lying LYING!”. He pulled him off the wall and slammed him against it again. A sound emerged from deep within his soul, a cross between the sound of a dying animal and something not quite human. He staggered backwards as his Friend shoved him back.

“Damn you, she’s dead ok, dead, and right now They are on the way here for the rest of us. They know who we are, we have to get out of here”. His Friend pushed against him and freed himself. “Im sorry, so sorry. I have to warn my family” and with that he stumbled down the hall towards the lifts.

He watched as his Friend moved away from him. His Heart, his dearest Heart was dead. How could that be, they were due to marry that winter. She was dead? And They were coming? Who were They anyway, did anyone really know.

The soul had slowed now and was barely moving, it was almost as though the soul had started to tremble. A very slight tremble had begun as this meaning passed through. This was something that the soul could not pass by, this was something that had left an echo within in the soul. This was a memory of something very deep and changing.

A decision was looming and woe that the wrong choice be made.

He moved down the alley barely looking where he was going. The crowd around the hotel had grown. Chaos seemed to be breaking right before his very eyes, but he was unseeing. He walked away from the crowd moving towards somewhere, anywhere. His Heart was dead, no more. Never would he smell her scent upon her pillow as she rose in the morning. Never again would he watch as she nibbled on her bottom lip while deep in concentration. Never again would his hands caress her warm sated body after he had loved her. Never again.

Then suddenly the world was black and stifling. Weight pushed him to the ground as hands grabbed at him pinning him down. Voices and whispers. “He’s bagged sir”.

“Good. Tie him and tag him. Another one for the pen”

Then pain across his back, his arm, his front. First or batons what ever they were they hurt. Pain, blinding pain. “Fucking filth. It’s shit like you that has ruled for too long. Fucking fagot!”. A boot to the solar plexus. A punch to the head and darkness.

The soul no longer tilted. Now it had stated to visibly vibrate. The dim faint light begun to slowly glow a little brighter, a little stronger. The darkness crowded in reminding the light of what waited, the abyss, the never ending abyss of endlessness. A forever of dark.

They were people he noticed, other people. When had he last noticed others here. Not for a while though he suspected they had always been here. A poke to his shoulder and he moved forward. “Ahhhhh our mystery box, number 5. Well, well you are doing well. How long has he been here now?”

“This would be his third round with the second subject group. He’s the only one left from the first round”.

“There’s only one left, out of 15, well fancy that. We might be on to something finally. Remove him from this round and place him in isolation for a while. Give him the new strain, I doubt he’ll survive it but it should prove for some very interesting reactions don’t you think”. Voices chuckled. He turned his head and looked, truly looked through the fog his brain had existed in for God only knew how long. Brown eyes, this woman had brown eyes. He took in her face and features. He would remember this one.

“So will you bother with Last Rights” joked another familiar voice.

“Now, now Commander I am merely here to ensure your humane treatment of these criminals, I don’t think there would be a need for any last rights at all given the excellent state of health I find all your detainees in” another voice quipped back.

Voices and faces he would remember for a long time to come.

Soon after came the pain. The never ending sea of pain and blood. Time had ceased long ago, so too had life. Now was the pain, and soon the eternal darkness.

The soul stopped its vibration. A solid glow now took the place of the dim light. It began to grow and expand. It filled the darkness with a light that shone very differently to any other light that had come before. It was light in its most pure and radiant form. It illuminated deep down into the abyss towards an area that should never ever be exposed to light.

Deep down in this darkness something stirred. Something unknown and empty. It moved towards the light that shone down and slowly began to claw its way to the top. The soul reached its light down showing this darkness a path upwards.

A decision had been made. The soul and the darkness regarded each other. The darkness reached out and the soul welcomed the smothering of its light. Pitch black covered the scape.

The body on the floor twitched once, then twice. Eye lids flew open. The form rose in a slow singular movement until it was up right.

“Woe” it croaked in an unnatural tone “A choice has been made”.


End file.
